The rules listed below explain what behavior is expected of you and what behavior you can expect from other forum users. These rules are not exhaustive, and may not address all manner of offensive behavior. As such, the forum moderators and administrators shall have full discretion to address any behavior that they feel is inappropriate. Your access to these forums is a "privilege," and not a "right." We reserve the right to suspend your access to these forums at any time for reasons that include, but are not necessarily limited to, your failure to abide by these rules. Your use of any part the Shadowbane Emulator (SBEmu) forums is considered your agreement and consent to be bound by these terms.

These rules apply to all users of this forum, including those who are classified as SBEmu staff members.

Please be advised that this code of conduct governs only the SBEmu's forum service and not the conduct while playing the actual Shadowbane game using SBEmu's servers. In-game conduct is governed by its own separate code of conduct (found here).

Official Posting Rules

Harassment & Personal Attacks
Harassment of a personal nature and hate speech are strictly prohibited. While the definition of a personal attack is sometimes a matter of debate, the following are examples of what is never acceptable:

Using racial, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ageist, religious, political, ethnic, national, sexual, or any other epithetical comments directed against another user's actual or assumed "real life" person. Disagreement over what constitutes a religion, race, sexual orientation, or ethnicity is not a legitimate excuse.

Linking to external attacks, harassment, or other material, for the purpose of attacking another user.

Threats of real-world legal action, real-world violence, or threats of using any real-world knowledge for the purpose of blackmail or extortion.

This rule is enforced with very little leeway or tolerance. Posts that contain this type of offense may result in an immediate banishment for the offending account and all accounts found to be connected to it via IP address.

Role-played and/or in-character posts of a harassing nature can not exceed the bounds of the role-played setting and must still fit the forum or thread in which they are posted. The moderators will be the final arbiters on what is role-play and what is not. If you are not sure, ask before you post, or tone down your post or reply.

Posts that are personally offensive that do not violate these rules must be proactively addressed by the offended user via the forum block feature. To block a user, visit their profile and click "add foe".

Hate Speech
The Harassment & Personal Attacks rule is not limited to individuals. Groups of individuals are protected from this behavior even if they do not use the forums.

Breaches of Privacy
Posting private information without the owner's prior authorization is prohibited in all sections of the forums except for Administrative Review Requests (when necessary). This rule applies even if the information is publicly available elsewhere.

Failure to Comply
Users are required to follow instructions from moderators or administrators. A moderator or administrator may ask users to change their posting behavior in order to enhance the forum environment. These requests may include avoiding posting in certain areas of the forums or to avoiding speaking to certain users directly. This is typically done as an attempt to avoid an all-out banishment of a user who has disrupted the forum environment.

Abuse of Alternate Accounts and Proxies
Users may create and post with alternate accounts so long as they are not being used to impersonate others or to avoid a forum banishment. Additionally, certain forum offenses may carry disciplinary action for all users that share a certain IP address. Unless already revealed by the user themselves, moderators are instructed not to out alternate accounts they find during the normal course of duty.

The use of proxies to protect your identity is not prohibited, however you do so at your own risk. If a disciplinary investigation determines that accounts are tied together (usually determined by comparing IP's), your account may suffer consequences because of it. Problematic proxy servers or IP ranges will be blocked completely, which may affect your access to the forum.

Bots and Solicitation
Accounts created with the sole intent to advertise any product or service not directly related to SBEmu or accounts engaging in SEO link-dropping will be immediately banned and deleted without warning. We ask that all registered users also refrain from engaging in casual or commercial ad campaigns upon the forum, even those that are non-profit or charitable, unless permission is first obtained from a project administrator.

Posting Challenges Against Staff in Public
All administrator and moderator actions can be discussed, clarified and appealed to. However, you must do so in the Administrative Review Requests forum only.

The Administrative Review Request forum is a "private" forum. Posts created there can only be viewed by staff and the post's author. The purpose of this process is to allow for a clean and professional review of staff actions by their peers, which allows the team to effectively manage and maintain its ethical integrity.

Negative Comments or Slander Regarding SBEmu
SBEmu is an all-volunteer project. We host these forums as a courtesy for players. It's purpose is to provide a place to discuss the game with peers, and to have a direct source of official news regarding the project. The forums are not intended for venting frustrations with the project or staff or to be a soap box for protesting the management decisions of the project. As such, all non-constructive negative comments directed toward the SBEmu project or the decisions of the staff in regards to it are prohibited. This includes demands for progress updates, timelines, or other project progress. Such comments may be removed and users who show continuous and ongoing discontent may have their posting abilities temporarily restricted. Posts with the sole purpose of attacking or slandering the SBEmu project and/or its staff are particularly offensive and may result in a forum ban.

Criticism of a constructive nature that is without jabs, slights, or other negativity are allowed and encouraged.

Signature Restrictions
You may not have more than one image in your signature that exceeds 500 pixels (wide) by 200 pixels (tall) and 300 KB in size. If you have multiple images, they must not exceed these total dimensions. Avatars should not be larger than 130 pixels (wide) by 160 pixels (tall) and 100 KB in size. We have implemented these limits to help insure that the forums loading times stay optimal for our users.

In addition, all images used in your signature space must not violate any other part of the code of conduct. Repeat violators of this rule may have these features removed completely.

Illegal & Inappropriate Content
The SBEmu forums comply with United States federal law regarding computer activity. Therefore, all illegal content is prohibited on the forums. This includes any posts, signature, profile, or other user content that directly or indirectly requests, sells, offers, or implies the use of copyright infringement, software or sound recording piracy, child pornography, bomb threats, or hoaxes. For further information on what is considered illegal, see 18 U.S.C. 1030 - Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers. Additionally, the SBEmu forums prohibit discussion or planning of activities (online or otherwise) which are illegal under United States federal law or any law governing a United States territory or municipality such as pyramid schemes, Ponzi schemes, or other scams. In certain cases, we are required by law to report these posts to the appropriate authorities.

The forum uses a word censoring system that replaces many offensive terms with a string of text within brackets. This feature is set to "on" by default, and it can be toggled in your display options. Bypassing the word censoring system (with misspellings, images, or any other means) is prohibited. If you notice an offensive word that has not been covered under word censoring, please let a moderator or administrator know immediately. This rule extends to content found inside hyperlinks posted anywhere in the forums, your profile, or your signature space.

"Questionable" content that may be inappropriate for minors, or content that is unwelcome in a professional work environment is allowed only if a warning is extended (E.G. "NSFW" in the title of the post) or if the content is contained within the "spoiler" tags and the warning is mentioned prominently in the post.

Off-Topic Posts and Spam
Posts that are inappropriate for a particular forum or thread may be moved to a more appropriate forum or even removed completely depending on the nature of the post. This is done to facilitate proper communication on the forums and allow for the flow of conversation, especially with new players who are looking for information. Re-posting of deleted or moved posts to their original location is prohibited.

We define "spam" as irrelevant posts which contribute no substance to a conversation. Examples of spam include (but are not limited to): "first" posts, "+1" posts, posts that only quote another post, or needless bumping. Spam is another type of off-topic post and is disallowed on nearly all areas of the forums and will be deleted immediately and without a notification to their author. Accounts created with the sole intention of spamming may be deleted completely.

As part of a spam countermeasure, there is a threshold of 10 posts required before users can create threads or send PM's. Since deleted posts will subtract from your post count, we ask that you contain your spam to this thread if you must reach this threshold sooner.

Trolling
Trolling is prohibited in all forums except the Political Discussion. We define trolling as posts intended (all or in part) to evoke negative and emotional responses from a specific user or users, or for mere shock value. Violation of this rule can cause disciplinary action toward all accounts sharing your IP address.

Moderator Expectations

Moderators are human and can not be everywhere at once. You can bring their attention to rule violations using the "Report this Post" button next to each post. Your report will be added to a queue for the next available moderator to address. Please be accurate with your report category and descriptive in the comments to speed the resolution of this report. Repeated misuse of the report feature may lead to disciplinary action.

You can also use the report feature to request that your own post get deleted, moved, or edited.

Thank You

Lastly, please have fun. Although it looks like there are a lot of procedures and rules in place, most of these are common sense, and are meant as a safeguard to keep these forums active and relevant for the community of a game we all love. Abusing these forums affects everyone who enjoys this game, so we ask for your cooperation and your support in achieving and maintaining this goal. Suggestions to make this an even better place for our community are always welcome! You can PM any of the SBEmu Staff Members with your input and we will gladly review it for implementation.